Tips on fully remote "police scanner" with SDRs

[jeepcherokee]

Hi,
I´ve used a lot of time searching the forums, but so many tools/applications to choose from..

I want to setup a "police scanner", mainly for private use with the use of SDR. My equipment is on a remote location, so I need a "headless" setup. I remote to this via Anydesk/Teamviewer, SSH and so on, and I can setup port forwarding to access any steams etc.

My hardware
- 1 RSPdx connected to a stacked dipole
- 1 RTL-SDR connected to a 70cm yagi pointing one direction
- 1 RTL-SDR connected to a 70cm ygi pointing another direction
- Computer with i7 and 16GB RAM, today running Linux and Openwebrx+ (working great, but not scanner-friendly)

My needs
- Have a setup I can "hunt" for new frequencies (mainly NFM and DMR)
- Have a list of programmed channels and scan them (and maybe map a channel against a SDR/antenna)
- Have easy access via computer and iphone via app/browser

Hoping for some tips! Or I guess I need to buy multiple HW scanners...

 

[C_615]

I have been working on a multiple system SDR setup over the past few weeks using SDR-Trunk and Rdio-Scanner.

Rdio-Scanner is a great interface, but I have learned that it’s a very different experience than a traditional scanner if, as is my case, you are monitoring systems with a lot of traffic. The queue of calls can exceed 200 calls in less than a minute. I didn’t realize I was missing so much with a regular scanner. You have to be a little more focused since you aren’t hopping around talkgroups.

 

[jeepcherokee]

I have been working on a multiple system SDR setup over the past few weeks using SDR-Trunk and Rdio-Scanner.

Rdio-Scanner is a great interface, but I have learned that it’s a very different experience than a traditional scanner if, as is my case, you are monitoring systems with a lot of traffic. The queue of calls can exceed 200 calls in less than a minute. I didn’t realize I was missing so much with a regular scanner. You have to be a little more focused since you aren’t hopping around talkgroups.

Thanks for you reply,
All you listening through Rdio-scanner are programmed frequencies in SDR Trunk, or is is only searching?
And, will at RTL-SDR Dongle with 2.4mhz bandwidth be able to scan the whole UHF band at the time? (with 1 section of the time.. first 2,4 mhz, then the next 2.4mhz and so on)

 

[dave3825]

will at RTL-SDR Dongle with 2.4mhz bandwidth be able to scan the whole UHF band at the time? (with 1 section of the time.. first 2,4 mhz, then the next 2.4mhz and so on)

No, not in Sdrtrunk. The dongle will cover close to 2.4mhz. that's it. You park it somewhere and you get 1.2mhz up and down from that point. Sdrtrunk is mainly for trunked systems tho you can do conventional but the freqs need to be within 2.4mhz of each other.

Rdio Scanner works with any radio recorder, as long as they can create audio files separated by conversations or transmissions.

Here is a list of recorders known to work with Rdio Scanner:

Recorder	API	Dirwatch
Trunk Recorder	X	X
RTLSDR-Airband		X
SDRTrunk		X
voxcall	X
ProScan		X
DSDPlus Fast Lane		X

Basically your looking to achieve two goals. Police scanner and surf the spectrum.

 

[N1FKO]

re: 'police scanner', I use a headless Mac mini with SDRTrunk and Rdio Scanner with multiple SDRs, covering two trunked sites (700/800) MHz and local FM/P25 (400MHz). SDRTrunk supporting my old RSP1 is to blame for sending me down this path.

Multiple listeners in different locations/volumes help to sort and prioritize traffic. As C_615 points out, it's impossible to listen to everything.

nb: that table is slightly out of date, SDRTrunk supports Rdio Scanner API.